Paul Wickens Email & Phone Number

Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

The Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland advises Ofcom about the interests and opinions, in relation to communications matters, of people living in Northern Ireland.

Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Belfast, United Kingdom

Paul joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service to create and lead a multi-functional shared services organisation. Quickly developing a strategy, Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) was created within the Department of Finance. The initial services included IT, Financial, HR and Payroll. Property Management, Pensions and other sundry services were created and integrated. As ESS matured it became the engine room to drive transformation, value and standardisation leading to significant efficiencies. Digitally transforming dozens of public services used daily by citizens led to a culture of “digital first” supported by a “digital inclusion" approach for those not yet ready, able or willing to embrace the new approach. Restructuring of government departments was enabled. The era of hybrid working was rapidly delivered and supported during the Covid crisis.Driven by a vision to be customer-focused, high-performing and innovative, ESS led to reshaping the way government worked both internally and externally. Delivering shared services to over 27,000 employees in more than 80 public sector organisations led to savings of in excess of £250m. Both supply and demand side governance were established. IT, Digital and Cyber strategies were developed and executed. With a wide-reaching set of programmes and projects constantly running, oversight and scrutiny was provided by Digital Transformation, Strategy and Steering boards, a Cyber Leadership board, as well as obligatory Audit and Risk and Select Committees.

Energetic, innovative and inspirational leadership and services provided by leading consultants in the areas of CRM and ICT Services (including service and programme management using ITIL and Prince 2).

Throughout his time at Steria, Paul has led and undertaken a number of initiatives targeted at the development and improvement of Steria’s services and P&L. These have included:• Creation and execution of strategy to develop the business.• Ownership of P&L.• Penetrating, winning and delivering 3 major projects in NICS.• Consolidating the relationship in Health and winning 1 new major project.• Winning and delivering the NIW ICT infrastructure project as subcontractor to Crystal Alliance.• Ensuring delivery of RecordsNI and RMS for the NICS.• Ensuring delivery of the Customer Billing and Contact Centre and Mobile Workforce Management for NI Water Ltd.• Integration of the Xansa acquisition into the business in Ireland. This included taking on a team of over 100 people plus recruiting new senior staff.• Restructuring, leading and mentoring the Senior Management Team in Ireland.• Creation of the ECM Centre of Excellence, funded by InvestNI.

As Managing Director Paul led a major project to establish a new company to develop and deliver an Internet based solution based on data warehousing and embedded database technology for the food industry. He successfully built a team and negotiated substantial private equity investment that funded development of a patented solution.

Paul worked in the Middle-East and USA with a number of major financial service companies as a Programme Director to deliver ICT solutions – particularly in the field of CRM. He also authored a book - “Customer Intelligence – Achieving Effective CRM for Competitive Advantage” plus a number of associated articles.

As CRM Director Paul led the CRM and Financial Services team across EMEA. He built a team of Subject Matter Experts, Consultants and Marketing Specialists with responsibility for a complete financial services solution suite. He led an international cross-industry CRM consultancy team, delivering projects in many countries. He was involved in the acquisition and integration of a CRM solutions company in to NCR.

Paul, as International Alliances Director created and launched Fiserv’s European organisation for Data Warehousing and CRM, developing a sales, marketing and deployment strategy. It also involved the recruitment and mentoring of key resources and partners. The role encompassed alliances and direct business development. In particular, he set up a CRM capability that resulted in the successful sales and creation of a number of Contact Centres in Europe and South Africa.

As Project Director Paul led a project to win and deliver CRM and Data Warehousing solution to a European Telco, involving design and development of a Customer Contact Centre along with associated processes and technology.Paul was seconded from ICL for one year as Managing Director to oversee the creation and direction of a Joint Venture Company between ICL and Real Software Ltd. of Belgium (a large software and services organisation). This involved taking an existing company owned by DuPont and carrying out a Transfer of Undertaking (TUPE) Project. The new company specialised in SAP Deployment for various European Markets. As Project Manager and Technical Consultant Paul worked on various projects in both the public and private sectors across Ireland. In addition, he conducted international technical consulting assignments.

As a Software Engineer, Paul was one of the first 6 people in Kainos at its formation. He worked on the design and development of a Document Management/Workflow System for managing information usage in various Public Sector Organisations. Prior to this, Paul was a Lecturer in Computer Science at what is now Belfast Metropolitan College (previously BIFHE).

Major Project Leadership Academy (Mpla)

The Major Projects Authority (MPA) within The Cabinet Office has established the MPLA to transform the implementation of Government policy.

Mba, Project Management

Thesis not completed.

Bsc, Computer Science & Business Administration